TV Review: The Apprentice 5 – Episode 7

I hate when they do this. I really hate it. The Apprentice aired two episodes back to back and there will be no new show next Monday night. Oh, whatever happened to one new show a week at the same time (as in same Bat Channel and same Bat Time) each week for an entire season? The next new show will air two weeks from now on April 24.

This episode opened with Leslie crying over losing Bryce, someone she considered a friend. We all know she wants Lenny gone. Will she get her wish? Lenny decided since he was on thin ice, he’d be Project Manager to prove himself…or not.

The candidates, wearing silly hardhats, met Donald Trump, wearing a silly hairdo (apparently it doubles as a hardhat) atop of the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street. There were two executives from Ace Hardware there, as well as an executive from the Boys and Girls Clubs. The task? Well, based on creativity, originality, and judge’s approval, teams had to renovate a Boys and Girls club with a theme in mind. Woohoo! Finger-paints! Oh. Okay, no finger paints. Sigh…

Lenny started right off on a bad foot with the project. He decided music or dance, which were okay. But he didn’t make a real decision, although he finally focused on music. More than one time I heard him say “I don’t care.” What kind of attitude is that? Even if he was having problems dealing with Charmaine, that’s not the phrase he should use. Eek! When they had the meeting with the executives, Lenny just went tongue-tied. If not for the rest of the team, no questions would have been asked. That was their chance to find out what the execs wanted, which, in the end, would win the task.

The commercial break return foreshadowing quote and lecture from Trump this episode was “Be Decisive.” D’oh! Why didn’t he say, “You’re fired, Lenny” and get it done and over with right then and there?

Over at Synergy, Michael was the Project Manager and was pretty much the polar opposite of Lenny. He didn’t stop asking questions of the executives to the point of repeating himself and becoming a bit annoying. But, at least he asked good questions for the most part. They decided on a variety of activities which would be interactive and children could gather in groups. They went for a big screen TV, video games, music, a comfy girls’ gathering corner and board games.

In my opinion, both teams blew it with time management. It’s a wonder either team got things done. Michael dawdled and was indecisive. Lenny was dismissive of others and indecisive. Everyone fussed at each other. Lenny and Lee like each other, but Charmaine and Tarek don’t like either. Synergy on the whole was frustrated with Michael’s lack of leadership. Both teams were a mess. Bill Rancic actually asked Andrea what she thought of Michael’s leadership qualities in front of Michael! Ack! She fumbled through it rather politely for her.

However, when the execs arrived, both clubs were finished. They seemed more impressed with Synergy’s multiple interactive activities than with Gold Rush’s simply music. The children brought in actually seemed more excited by the music only one, but they weren’t the ultimate judge. In the end, the judges went for a Synergy win. As their reward, they took a young girl with cancer to a Make a Wish Foundation sponsored toy buying spree at Toys ‘R Us. It was touching.

Gold Rush got to visit the Boardroom once again. Lee, in a show of loyalty to his buddy Lenny, coached Lenny on what he should and shouldn’t say to Trump. Now, of course, I’m wondering how even Loyal Lee could think that Lenny could indeed actually work for Trump if he won the show. Yes, Lenny has drive, but he has few people skills at all. Lenny asked Lee if he could bring him in the Boardroom and it was given that he’d bring Charmaine as those two are like oil and water.

Lenny pleaded conspiracy. Lenny tried his best to make Charmaine look bad, but it didn’t work. She really did nothing wrong in the task. A “no-brainer” as Bill said.

“Lenny, you’re fired.”

Trump did think highly of Lee’s loyalty. I personally think it was misplaced unless Lee planned to have a poor candidate against himself at the end. Friendship is one thing, but defending someone like Lenny…I don’t know.

Welp, there’s another episode yet to be written up before I hit the sack. What did you think of the show?

Trump was right to fire Lenny, but I could kinda see his point about Charmaine, who does love to bitch and moan quite a bit.

Incidental note: I’m from Columbia, SC, which is where Allie is from, so she’s my favorite. She was Project Manager for the first show and pulled it off, despite Brent. Since then, she’s had the good fortune to remain on Synergy, the winning team. I’d love to see her tested again.

I am trying to keep my thoughts clear on everything. Showing two episodes back to back really threw me off (I was thinking of what to write about here, and I almost started putting stuff down from the second episode that they showed last night).

Anyway, I pretty much agree with everything that Jackie said.

Lenny was the obvious choice about who to fire. He just didn’t do anything right. I don’t really think Charmaine did anything wrong. I mean, at one point Lenny wanted her to move something, and she said she couldn’t because it was too heavy for her, and then he accuses her of complaining. Now, I’m not saying that she doesn’t complain at times, but in this case he was insisting that she do something that is simply a physical impossibility for her to do on her own. It’s shouldn’t have been a rocket science for Lenny to understand the problem.

Lee is loyal, which is kind of good. But loyalty can misguide people as well. I don’t like backstabbers, but I also don’t like people who are so loyal that they can’t (or choose not to) see the fault in the person that they are loyal to. It is possible to simply point out someone’s fault without completely jumping down their back and ripping them apart.

Synergy did a better job overall with putting a wide variety of options in the room that they redid. It made a lot more sense for the most part. And seeing them take that girl to Toys R Us was cool. I like the part when Trump showed up, looked at the bags of everything she had picked out, and he said “Is that all? Get some more!”
When he said that, the Toys R Us employee in the background had this kind of scared look on his face. But, it was nice to see them do something wonderful for someone in that girl’s situation.

Dynamo of Eternia

Oh, one part that I loved and didn’t mention in the last post was when Sean was talking about Michael and said “He’s such a wanker!” I was cracking up at that part. Michael was kind of making a big deal about a lot of little details.

ClubStyle_DJ

I had to do a DJ shift last nite so I missed the show. I had to use the official website (and of course jackie’s entries
) to get the re-cap. I’m looking at everything and it says that both Lenny and Leslie are fired…OMFG…(there’s your shake up) so I’m lookin at all the recap video and I see the Lenny firing and what lead up to it (long overdue btw) and I’m like what the heck did leslie do? Not realizing it was a double episode. Well the fantasy game didn’t reflect that either and they combined the firing results as if it happened on the one episode. Yer right Jackie…I hate it when that happens. :^< My fantasy results are dismal to say the most. I think I got 3 right…I lost like 200 position points overall and dropped down 2 among the friends of Roxanne group. I signed up for the podcast instant message (IM) because i have to work during the show sometimes. I got 2 messages…wtf…a 2hr show and i got 2 freakin messages and one was from Trump. Last week I got 6 to 8 for a 1hr show. go figure. Anyway from what I gathered Michael was a wanker, along with Lenny , Charmaine well maybe wankette if there’s such a word…no more along the lines of the ” B ” word.
(nails on a chalk board according to Tarek) I can’t see her running a trump company or division…either she’s crying about one thing or another or bitchin about it. Had a boss like that once…I’m still with the company..nuff said.

Rodney – Yeah, I have to agree that Charmaine can be annoying. She’s too whiney for my tastes, too. Lenny definitely didn’t handle her right, but he screwed up so royally on so much else that he deserved to go away.

I’ve been pretty impressed with Allie. Since she was PM so early in the season, we really haven’t seen a heck of a lot of her in recent weeks.

Dynamo – The two eps in a night threw me, too. I was going to make one entry, but it was obviously a re-schedule of two separate shows to make room for that Celeb Cooking thing next week. I didn’t start writing the entries up until 11 PM and had to get up at 6. Grr. I managed to get both up on my blog before Letterman ended and then get them in the editing/pending queue here at BC by 1 AM. I will sleep well tonight!

I agree with you on Lee. Blind loyalty isn’t a good thing. Lenny might be a friend, but his people skills could/can/possibly did ruin Lee’s credibility. I actually think Lee has a lot on the ball for such a young guy. What I don’t like is that he often goes from shifty eyes to deer caught in the headlight eyes. Then again, I don’t like Trump’s hair, voice or little mouth even more. So, Lee might make it.

That was great for the young girl. The Make a Wish Foundation is fantastic!

http://jackiestvblog.blogspot.com/ Jackie

Yikes, DJ! I like “wankette.” Yeah, she would be one! I can’t see her running a company. I know I’ve had employees sort of like her, but never a boss like that. I too have outlasted SO many of my bosses. I’m currently working for a drama queen micro-manager type. I should send him to Trump!